Dungeon Lords - MMXII Interview Part 1 @ GameBanshee

What new spells have you added to the game, and what changes are you making to the magic system as a whole?

D.W. Bradley: The most significant change was to make all magic spells share a common Mana pool, providing players much greater freedom of choice for casting magic spells during combat. Mana is directly influenced by the Hero's Intellect attribute, allowing players to decide whether to improve attributes for better Magic or Melee capabilities when they Level Up. Nether spells are no longer mixed with Nether Katals, instead, each Nether spell requires one specific associated Nether Katal to cast in addition to its Mana cost, but the Katals are consumed much more slowly, allowing Nether spells to be cast more than once with a single Katal (Alchemy skill makes Katals last longer). Rune spells were also revised to use Mana, and Runestones have been removed from the game. Casting times and cooldowns are now displayed for the spells when cast, and this visual feedback makes use of magic much easier and intuitive during battles.

The decision to assign the different schools of Magic according to the Basic Classes necessitated that all of the Magic Spells be revisited and rebalanced, and new spells were added to supplement the Basic Class associated with that Magic school, for example the new Rune Blast spell for Fighters, Bloodstrike (a healing strike) for Rogues, Frost Missile for Mages, and Shadowstrike for Adepts. A number of the original spells were also revised, for example Rune Speed now increases fighting and movement speed, granting Fighters and Adepts ability to run faster in the game for a limited time. The Warding spells moved from Rune Magic to Crystal Magic, however, the Boon spells affecting a multiplayer group remain as Rune spells, allowing Fighters to pump up and inspire the party for improved Melee combat.

The changes to the Magic system and spells represented a major undertaking for DL MMXXII, but I felt they were necessary to provide greater distinction between the different Classes, and I wanted the player's choice of Classes to result in very different gameplay experiences with regard to combat tactics and survival strategies.

I do like the fact that the UI for this 3rd iteration of DL is modeled after World of Warcraft. Love or hate that game, WoW really does have the best developed UI for an RPG. Whenever I play Skyrim, I'm constantly wishing I had the UI of WoW.

-- If I'm right but there is no wife around to acknowledge it, am I still right?

"double-left-click & hold triggers a power attack (if the Hero has Lvl 5+ skill with the equipped weapon)"

Riiiiight, now I get it. I worked out I had to hold it but was assume it was at the end of a combo and my timing was off.

etc, etc

It's still not "finished" but the "patch" is a step in the right direction…
I do keep wanting to play it… It's kind of unique and has a lot of good points and while I'm always finding stuff to fix the time does seem to fly by. I'll totally forget about my fresh cup of tea and have to drink it cold. So I'm torn. I can understand it garnering a cult following but the majority won't last long with it. I Think I need to win it then see what I think. Or do I? Hell, I don't know.

Just the fact its the ONLY co-op RPG of its kind makes it kinda special. Now all I need is someone to play co-op with!

My friend who I tried to play the original release with pretty much laughed when I suggested we try it again. Anyone near by want to give it a play?

Originally Posted by SirJames
It's still not "finished" but the "patch" is a step in the right direction…
I do keep wanting to play it… It's kind of unique and has a lot of good points and while I'm always finding stuff to fix the time does seem to fly by. I'll totally forget about my fresh cup of tea and have to drink it cold. So I'm torn. I can understand it garnering a cult following but the majority won't last long with it. I Think I need to win it then see what I think. Or do I? Hell, I don't know.

And the voodoo that is DL claims another victim…
;-)

Originally Posted by SirJames
Just the fact its the ONLY co-op RPG of its kind makes it kinda special. Now all I need is someone to play co-op with!

My friend who I tried to play the original release with pretty much laughed when I suggested we try it again. Anyone near by want to give it a play?

Tell me if you get it to work. I'm very interested in bringing this up to my group for another try, but want to know if they've fixed the multiplayer first. We quite enjoyed it the first time around, but eventually gave up around Arindale (sp?) because the MP was just too damn buggy.

And will someone please tell me if Alt-Tab freezes the game still? Please? For the love of God, please tell me!!!!!!

Originally Posted by chamr
And will someone please tell me if Alt-Tab freezes the game still? Please? For the love of God, please tell me!!!!!!

No, Alt-Tab minimizes the game to the taskbar and back just fine now.

Does anyone know if there's a way to scroll and/or zoom in/out your map? Also, what exactly does the "scout" skill do?

I'm trying to give this game one last chance. I'm in Fargrove now at level 10, but several things are annoying the shit out of me. First, I wish it was a little more obvious where to go. I'm not saying I want my hand held, but the extremely limited view distance in this game makes finding anything a chore. It would be nice if places on the map were marked after you found them. It would also be nice if skills, etc., had a mouseover description.

I also wish I had chosen the hardest difficulty. Other than a couple of boss encounters, I've yet to be challenged in the slightest. I hope this game gets harder because I'm not enjoying it enough to start over.

The amount of loot dropped is just silly. I had 45 heal potions and 5000+ gold by the time I reached Fargrove.

View distance can be improved somewhat in the options, and while you're there, set difficulty to "hard" and random monsters to "less". This seems to make it a bit more managable in terms of not being iritating with constant spawns.

Point and click mode (options, or press Ctrl) seems much the better way to control things, as you can click on buttons and generally interact with things. But "E" remains a useful button for quickly interacting with doors or pickups.

Map has zoom buttons on the minimap (top right) but seems to have a mind of its own for the M map. That said, the Fargrove map always seemed to have the right zoom level. I suspect it may be based on showing you the current dungeon "level". The sewers has several levels of different sizes, so it can be a bit muddled.

Like you, I'm in Fargrove circa L10, and I'm now exploring for guilds etc. My wife had a look at DL last night while I was playing, and noticed the improved character models, and ask to have a play with her own character. As someone said, there's some voodoo here, but maybe we're just starved of this kind of game?

Originally Posted by JDR13
No, Alt-Tab minimizes the game to the taskbar and back just fine now.

Ahh…. thanks JDR!

Originally Posted by JDR13
It would also be nice if skills, etc., had a mouseover description.

Go to Gamebanshee's game guide site. Best I've seen. Of course, some of the skills have been tweaked in the new edition, but most should still be the same.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I also wish I had chosen the hardest difficulty. Other than a couple of boss encounters, I've yet to be challenged in the slightest. I hope this game gets harder because I'm not enjoying it enough to start over.

If it's like the previous editions, it won't get harder. Best to bite the bullet now and set it to hard and, like Irien points out below, again if it's like the previous versions, everyone should set the spawn rate to the lowest setting. There's simply no point in the higher spawn rate.

Dungeon Lords is shaping up nicely…Seven years after I bought the crappy pre-alpha build, I can now purchase the 2012 Beta patch. Some of us were suckered into buying the previous 1.5 patch for $40 US… How much is this one again? I think I'll pass on version 2.0 and give this half-baked rpg a few more years in the oven.

Is this really the same D.W. Bradley who created the outstanding Wizardry V-VII games?

Does the respawn rate also differ depending on location? I'm trying to navigate the Slums section in Fargrove, and I'm getting pissed off to the point of rage quitting. For every thief/brigand I kill, another one takes its place literally within seconds, and this is with the spawn rate at the lowest setting.

I think the slums spawn rate drops slightly once the Master Thief has been killed. Certainly it was almost unplayably high initially, and I found myself fighting 20+ thieves simultaneously after entering one area. That included a so-called Master Thief. After defeating him, the spawn rate dropped considerably, and the area became quite managable, albeit still with a higher spawn rate than elsewhere. Note, this was with "Less" spawnrate set, so it must have been awful on "normal".

For instance, it mentions seven new classes - Necromancer, Illusionist, Druid, Dragonlord, Bladewitch, Warangel, and Assassin, but it gives no information about them whatsoever. It would be nice to know what guilds they're associated with, and their prerequisites, so I could plan ahead with my character's build.

It doesn't even say whether or not the multiclass system is the same as before. I'm assuming you can still have two first-tier classes, two second-tier clasees, and one third-tier class, but it would be nice if that was clarified somewhere.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The manual for this game is terribly uninformative.

For instance, it mentions seven new classes - Necromancer, Illusionist, Druid, Dragonlord, Bladewitch, Warangel, and Assassin, but it gives no information about them whatsoever. It would be nice to know what guilds they're associated with, and their prerequisites, so I could plan ahead with my character's build.

It doesn't even say whether or not the multiclass system is the same as before. I'm assuming you can still have two first-tier classes, two second-tier clasees, and one third-tier class, but it would be nice if that was clarified somewhere.

I'm impressed with how much time and effort you seem to be pouring into a game you obviously hate